Steny Hoyer to Sandra Fluke: You should probably sue Rush, you know

posted at 10:11 pm on March 5, 2012 by Allahpundit

Given the insane mileage Democrats are getting from this story, he could probably get David Boies to represent her pro bono. Anything to keep the headlines coming.

Someone, I forget who, tweeted a few days ago that they’d happily bet ten grand that Fluke will get a cameo speaking appearance on one of the first nights of the Democratic convention. Anyone want to take that bet? Bear in mind, Obama’s already dialing up women’s colleges and inviting himself to speak at commencement in hopes of squeezing every last drop of war-on-women goodness out of this fiasco. At the rate we’re going, Fluke might introduce him at his acceptance speech.

“I’d like to see her take him to court,” said Hoyer, who was in Selma for the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee. “She is not a public figure and, for that reason, she should be able to sue for slander, libel or whatever else might be involved.”…

Joseph Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said he is familiar with “vintage Rush Limbaugh.”

“(Fluke) has ample room to sue him and I hope she does because he’s gotten rich off the mess he causes,” said Lowery, who joined Hoyer and other national leaders in condemnation of Limbaugh.

She’s got two problems trying to beat him on a defamation claim. One: Hoyer’s probably wrong when he says she’s not a “public figure” for First Amendment purposes. Courts will treat someone as a “limited-purpose public figure” under certain circumstances; according to the EFF’s summary of the law, typically that applies to someone who “(a) voluntarily participates in a discussion about a public controversy, and (b) has access to the media to get his or her own view across.” Fluke voluntarily testified before Congress and, lord knows, she has all the access to the media she could ever want. Assuming she’s a “limited-purpose public figure,” that means she’d have to show that Rush was more than just negligent in calling her a “slut” but acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true. Not an impossible standard to meet but more difficult, and his extended apology today may affect the calculus. The other problem is that, at bottom, he was making a crude joke more than a sincere accusation of fact. His point was that if you want someone else paying for your birth control then you’re kinda sorta being paid to have sex, in which case you’re kinda sorta a prostitute. That analogy is obviously different from claiming earnestly that someone’s promiscuous, but Rush did go on and on and on with it, especially in riffing on the absurdity of the $3,000 figure, so who knows how a jury would disentangle it. Would the line, “She’s having so much sex it’s amazing she can still walk, but she made it up there,” be viewed in the larger context of the point he was making or would it be viewed as a bona fide assertion of fact? I don’t know. Defamation lawyers, any insights?

You’ll be pleased to know that Bill Maher, the chief villain in Kirsten Powers’s j’accuse of liberal men this weekend, has a nifty new HuffPo post up talking about what it’s like to grow up a poor man and then donate $1 million to Obama’s Super PAC, Priorities USA. Among the people circulating his post on Twitter: Bill Burton, senior strategist and co-founder of … Priorities USA. You know, I’m starting to think they might not give back the money.

The word “slut” has been getting around a lot lately. Just this week, MSNBC host Ed Schultz was suspended after calling conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut.” Soon after, he went on TV to express his regret at length and, interestingly, became choked up when he apologized to his wife in particular. This follows the hubbub over emerging global SlutWalks, edgy anti-rape protests staged in response to a Canadian official’s remark that women should protect themselves by not dressing like “sluts.” The marches have garnered international coverage all month long and revived debate about whether the slur can be reclaimed.

Please sue Rush, Sandra. His attorneys will dig up so much dirt you on during discovery, it’ll be hilarious watching the Democrat/media complex abandon you quicker than they did Cindy Sheehan after Obama’s inauguration.

Speaking of dirt on Fluke, it’s being reported that at one point she was advocating that insurance companies pick up the tab for sex change operations. And the Democrat Party wants to make her their new poster girl? I say bring it on.

I’m sure not a lawyer and don’t play one anywhere, but wouldn’t she have to show she was damaged? Will her sure-to-come book tour, Moochelle-style job offers and religion-of-the-left celeb status tend to negate feigned damages?

i didn’t know that it’s against the law to call someone mean names. well conservatives have so many reasons to sue liberals now…

Speaking of dirt on Fluke, it’s being reported that at one point she was advocating that insurance companies pick up the tab for sex change operations. And the Democrat Party wants to make her their new poster girl? I say bring it on.

Doughboy on March 5, 2012 at 10:21 PM

i’m not surprised, i’ve seen liberals say that before. they want everything free, and i mean everything, no matter how ridiculous.

Someone, I forget who, tweeted a few days ago that they’d happily bet ten grand that Fluke will get a cameo speaking appearance on one of the first nights of the Democratic convention. Anyone want to take that bet?

Five minutes. Sure. Why not? Even if she’s the most robotic talking-points generating machine I’ve ever seen. From the little I’ve seen of her, she’s devoid of human qualities. P.S. So sue me.

Rush would welcome the suit, as it would give him an opportunity to (1) refocus the religious liberty point and (2) truth is an absolute defense in a case of libel or slander. The suit will never be brought because courts deal in facts, and facts are not the strong suit of the leftists, like Fluke and Obama, to whom facts are but flies at their picnic, annoying and in need of death.

Speaking of dirt on Fluke, it’s being reported that at one point she was advocating that insurance companies pick up the tab for sex change operations. And the Democrat Party wants to make her their new poster girl? I say bring it on.

Doughboy on March 5, 2012 at 10:21 PM

It’s reasonable to say that, sometimes if not always, sex change surgery is a cruel fraud.

Since she’s a Georgetown Law student, she could represent herself, pro se and get legal advice from Steny for the trial hearing portion. Since she is poor and all, can’t afford BC pills and high-end condoms for all her paramours, she could let Steny take out in trade whatever his fees for legal advice would be.
.
How would ya like that, Steny? Could ya handle it, Steny?

Would the line, “She’s having so much sex it’s amazing she can still walk, but she made it up there,” be viewed in the larger context of the point he was making or would it be viewed as a bona fide assertion of fact? I don’t know.

If that’s where you need the jury to come down, brother, might as well start writing the settlement check now.

This is the same Steny Hoyer who is supposedly looking for a bill to deal with the budget in a bi-partisan manner in the House? This is a partisan hack who is looking to get re-elected and is willing to put on a show of bi-partisanship to do it.

When are the liberals in Congress going to call out the Bill Maher’s of this world? When Hoyer does something like this and refuses to call out Hoyer, it just shows the hypocrisy of the liberals and I don’t even listen to them.

One word. Discovery. This feminazi could never withstand the scrutiny.

I also truly believe that Rush is at this very moment doing his own discovery. Given the death of AB, the bomb scare and the loss of his advertisers I don’t think he will go quietly into that goodnight.

What’s funny to me is the fidelity with which Ms. Fluke is repeating Rush’s most “offensive” remarks. The s!ut word. The “I’m surprised she can walk” comment. And others. She’s so upset, she repeats the insults verbatim. At numerous venues.

it’s being reported that at one point she was advocating that insurance companies pick up the tab for sex change operations. And the Democrat Party wants to make her their new poster girl? I say bring it on.

Mark Levin said it on Friday: you have a border patrol agent shot dead by a gun supplied to drug runners by this administration and his parents received no phone call from Obama and we are talking (to the Dem’s delight) about this Georgetown fool.

Obama deserves a 2nd term. He’s earned it by showing he’s smartest. Outside of Newt, I don’t see one Republican not allowing themselves to be led around by the nose by a complicit MSM.

I hope she sues. Her extensive background as a radical activist, who’s paying her tutition, her associates, her coordination with Pelosi and the democrats, her reasoning to go to Georgetown (which was to attack their policies) … all out in the light for everyone to see.

Still waiting on Obama to return Bill Maher’s $1 million re-elect contribution.

I personally don’t think he should have apologized.

FREE SPEECH is on trial………and this is nothing more than the Progressives trying to shut down opposition speech. The problem is we’ve got so many tens of millions of Lazy butted Americans that I’m not sure if you had TANKS IN THE STREETS and a compliant media that 90% of Americans would be fine with a dictatorship as long as they still got their iPhones every year and their schedules for Braden and Caitlin’s soccer games and birthday parties with friends weren’t interrupted.

And to those comparing Rush and Bill Maher, Rush is the titular head of the republican party. Bill Maher is just a tool who thinks he is funny. His jokes are very dry. The man wished he were half as powerful as Rush is with the neo cons.

John Stewart is a fair comparison to Rush if you guys want to make that comparison.